No. 5 Williams Esports Chillblast, No. 171 Team Redline Win Respective Class Titles

BMW M Team BS+COMPETITION, Mercedes-AMG Esports Team Apex Racing Team win classes in Michelin 240 at Daytona

Four-Time Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen enters as Michelin Wild Card with Verstappen.com Racing, finishes 12th

The IMSA Esports Global Championship concluded in about as dramatic of fashion as possible on Sunday afternoon in the Michelin 240 at Daytona International Speedway. The ups and downs over two hours and 40 minutes saw the title fights in each respective class change hands multiple times, but as the clock struck zero, both championship leaders entering—the No. 5 Williams Esports Chillblast BMW Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) of Jaden Munoz and Matt Farrow and the No. 171 Team Redline Ferrari Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) of Enzo Bonito and Florian Lebigre—stayed atop to win their respective titles.

While the championship contenders struggled through the event, it allowed for two new winning teams to cap off the season at the World Center of Racing. In the GTP ranks, the No. 89 BMW M Team BS+COMPETITION entry held off a charging No. 33 Williams Esports Racing Prodigy BMW to take their first victory of the season. As for the GTD contention, the No. 198 Mercedes-AMG Esports Team Apex Racing Team held off a late charge from the No. 169 DRAGO Racing Lamborghini and the No. 105 Mercedes-AMG Esports Team Williams Esports group, ending their tumultuous season on a high note.

GTP TITLE FIGHT SWAPS HANDS THROUGHOUT

The season couldn’t end without some sort of drama, however, as the title for GTP was almost decided in Turn 1 on Lap 1. This week, Michelin offered up two Wild Card entries, one for each class, and one of those entries, the No. 27 Verstappen.com Acura GTP, had four-time Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen starting the event from the third starting spot, right behind the championship leaders in the No. 5 Williams Esports Chillblast entry.

On the green flag, the No. 5 got the jump and brought the No. 27 through into second place entering Turn 1. Verstappen then took the lunge into the corner and almost made it stick. Unfortunately, the cold tires mixed with the morning temperatures combined for a slide, which forced the No. 5 towards the back of the field as the reigning World Champion looped it around and continued on from the last position.

The No. 5 team continued to persevere for the remaining two hours and 39 minutes, ultimately fighting back to finish in 10th. However, even with the pole position points, that wouldn’t have been enough if their main rivals in the title fight, the No. 20 BMW M Team Redline crew of Diogo Pinto and Chris Lulham, won the race.

For a good chunk of the event, it looked like this could be a possibility, as the No. 20 took control of the race on that Lap 1 incident and pulled out to a stout lead early on. Around halfway and just before the driver swap, Lulham pulled onto pit road for the last time, but missed his mark, speeding at the entry line by over 15 mph. The 40-second penalty for speeding dropped the car Pinto was taking over from first down to outside the top-10. The No. 20 ultimately finished seventh, just over 40 seconds behind the No. 89, which was the difference obtained in the penalty.

Verstappen managed to hold serve in 14th through his double stint, handing his Acura over to teammate Gustavo Ariel at halfway. Ariel was able to take the wheel and drive it up to finish in 12th in class and overall.

All of the drama for the title handed the lead over to the No. 89 BMW M Team BS+COMPETITION entry with Phil Denes and Dominik Hofmann behind the wheel. The pair were stout at Road Atlanta and Indianapolis, entering Sebring second in the standings. A bad break on the opening lap at Sebring, however, cut their chances into miracle territory, needing the No. 5 to essentially qualify last and finish last to have a chance.

When the No. 5 took the pole position, that ended BS+COMPETITION’s bid for the title, as it became mathematically impossible to take it away from that point. Still, a victory was on the line, as was a possible second place should Team Redline falter, which they ultimately did.

In the closing laps, the No. 33 Williams Esports Racing Prodigy BMW of Moreno Sirica and Robin Glerum was the fastest GTP on track, chasing down the No. 89 to be within striking distance through the traffic. As the two teams navigated the slower GTDs, the No. 33 just couldn’t get into slipstream territory of the No. 89. Had there been another lap, they were there, but there wasn’t, and the No. 89 team celebrated their victory by just over two tenths.

GTD TITLE GOES TO TEAM REDLINE AFTER MID-PACK QUALIFYING EFFORT

In the GTD ranks, six teams mathematically had a shot at winning the title, but in reality, all eyes were on two—the championship leading duo of Bonito and Lebigre in the No. 171 Team Redline Ferrari and the most recent winners last week at Sebring, the fan-favorite Rexy ride driven by Tristan Iglesias and Michael Janney in the No. 118 AO Racing by Coanda Porsche, now sporting a golden “tooth” for their accomplishment.

After qualifying, it looked possible that Team Redline missed the setup and Rexy was perhaps in the catbird seat. The No. 118 put themselves fifth on the board while the No. 171 was mired back in the mix, down in 15th, outpaced by their teammates in the No. 170 who started a row ahead, in 13th. With 10 points gained in qualifying, the gap was down to 100 points. If Rexy gained one spot from where they qualified, or if Redline lost one spot from where they qualified, the championship would swap over in favor of the green dinosaur racecar.

Unfortunately for Iglesias and Janney, their race never improved from fifth. Bonito and Lebigre did, and by halfway, the two cars were nose-to-dinosaur-tail. The No. 171 eventually jumped ahead of Rexy, and by the end of things, the two teams finished sixth and seventh, respectively, which meant a wash on points, the gap staying the same at season’s end.

Had the two teams finished further down the order, the No. 105 Mercedes-AMG Esports Team Williams Esports group could have possibly stolen the title away, as could have the No. 169 DRAGO RACING Lamborghini, the No. 114 PGZ x P1doks.com Porsche, or the No. 102 Grid-and-Go.com eSports Ferrari, all within the points threshold entering. Instead, the battle for third became hotly contested among the No. 105 and the No. 169 as the laps began to wind down, both needing each other’s help to catch the leader but also both needing to fight each other for the podium position in the points.

It started off with the No. 120 Dörr Esports Corvette leading the field to the green, but they fell back after a slower first pit stop as the No. 198 Mercedes-AMG Esports Team Apex Racing Team entry of Yohann Harth and Peter Berryman took control, with the No. 105 of Beckham Jacir and Vasilios Beletsiotis also jumping into second.

As the No. 120 continued to fall down the order, eventually getting taken out of the race late, the No. 169 of Nicolas Mateo and Ricardo Rico emerged as a third threat for the win. The problem was that the No. 198 was in its own zip code while the No. 169 and their main rivals for third in the points, the No. 105, were a few seconds back but still in striking distance should they work together.

Ultimately, the two did team up, pulling away from the rest of the field and getting nearly within a second of the lead. Like in the GTP battle for the win, however, time just ran out, and with two laps to go, the No. 169 pulled out and made the move on the No. 105 to take the spot. In reality, the No. 169 needed two spots over the No. 105 to take the points position, and so the No. 105 wound up winning the third place battle by a mere seven points.

The No. 198, which was composed of members who won multiple races in seasons prior, had a couple of rough outings in this one, at Road Atlanta and Sebring specifically. As they held on for the victory, the No. 198 team jumped up and into the top-10 in the final standings, finishing ninth.

The other Michelin “Wild Card” entry this week was awarded in GTD to the Scuderia Ferrari HP Esports Team, which fielded a Ferrari 296 for Ole Steinbraten and Lorenzo Manfredotti. The team qualified 11th in class, but was served an early drive through penalty for registering to the server in the wrong number. The car said 51 on it, but the team was registered as the No. 197. The pair stayed mostly out of trouble, rebounding to claim 18th.

Most of the field made it to the finish, including nearly the entire GTP class and 27 of the 32 GTDs. Last year’s winners in the GTP class, Casey Kirwan and Owen Caryl, now driving the No. 95 for Channel 199 Sim Racing, incurred a penalty mid-race for moving a GTD in Turn 1, and wound up finishing in 11th. The No. 170 Team Redline Ferrari of Gianni Vecchio and Josh Thompson, which included Steinbraten in their race-winning and championship-winning efforts last season, did not have any of the same luck this season, once again retiring early on in the event to make four DNFs in 2024’s contest.

IMSA Esports Global Championship GTP points standings following Race No. 4 at Daytona

  1. No. 5 Williams Esports Chillblast, 1341
  2. No. 89 BMW M Team BS+COMPETITION, 1261
  3. No. 20 BMW M Team Redline, 1260
  4. No. 60 SOELPEC Precision Racing, 1119
  5. No. 8 Coanda Esports, 1109
  6. No. 33 Williams Esports Racing Prodigy, 1069
  7. No. 23 Race Clutch Black, 1065
  8. No. 95 Channel 199 Sim Racing, 982
  9. No. 11 Fiercely Forward, 975
  10. No. 15 Race Clutch Red, 957

IMSA Esports Global Championship GTP points standings following Race No. 4 at Daytona

  1. No. 171 Team Redline, 1370
  2. No. 118 AO Racing by Coanda, 1260
  3. No. 105 Mercedes-AMG Esports Team Williams Esports, 1180
  4. No. 169 DRAGO RACING, 1173
  5. No. 114 Team PGZ, 1012
  6. No. 168 DRAGO RACING, 1002
  7. No. 102 Grid-and-Go.com eSports, 970
  8. No. 156 56 Racing Team, 901
  9. No. 198 Mercedes-AMG Esports Team ART, 886
  10. No. 103 Grid-and-Go.com eSports, 750

2024 IMSA Esports Global Championship | R4: Michelin 240 – Daytona International Speedway | iRacing

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